LCol Chris Kilford at his desk in the Canadian Embassy, Kabul.
LCol Chris Kilford (RMC 2002) is presently serving in Afghanistan as the Deputy Defence Attaché in the Canadian Embassy, Kabul. Prior to his deployment he was the Military Liaison Officer to the Standing Senate Committee on Security and National Defence in Ottawa. He was commissioned in 1981 and has since served throughout Canada and in Germany and was the Commanding Officer of 4th Air Defence Regiment from 1999-2001. During his career he has completed the Army Staff College Course, the Canadian Land Forces Command and Staff Course, the Advanced Military Staff Course and was granted full-equivalency for the National Security Program in 2009. In October 1992, Chris completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Manitoba with a major in Political Science. He also holds a Masters Degree in War Studies (RMC 2002), a Masters Degree in Defence Studies (RMC 2003) and a PhD in history (Queen’s 2009). His PhD thesis focused on Canada’s military assistance efforts to the developing world in the post-colonial period and the effects that militarization in developing countries can have on wider modernization efforts. Chris has also written numerous military related articles and in September 2004 his book ‘On the Way’ was published. The book tells the story of the 34,000 German prisoners held in Canada during the Second World War. Chris has extensive experience working at the military/political strategic level and is particularly interested in Canadian development activities and Canadian Forces military assistance operations and how the lessons learned during this period are applicable to current and future operations, especially from a ‘whole of government’ approach.